Games Workshop to bring back classic 'specialist' games

Warhammer-makers Games Workshop will launch a new 'Specialist Games' studio to bring classic board games including Blood Bowl back from the dead.

In recent years, the UK-based modelling company has largely pulled back from publishing board games outside of its 'core' Warhammer 40,000, The Hobbit and recently relaunched Warhammer: Age of Sigmar franchises. Fans have speculated that games that require only a few models were just unable to generate the profit Games Workshop demands, compared to its army-building games that often require serious investment on the part of players.

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But for many fans, the 'golden age' of Games Workshop was that in which those big model-hungry, profitable games were complemented by smaller-scale titles, which often could be played in much shorter periods of time.

Games such as Blood Bowl (American football with monsters), Necromunda (futuristic gang warfare) and the space combat simulator Battlefield Gothic all have passionate communities supported by third-party model designers, but have had little-to-no support from Games Workshop outside of an uneven slate of video games recreations.

Games Workshop

A world cup of Blood Bowl was even held recently in Italy, with hundreds of gamers from more than a dozen countries competing for glory, with little input from Games Workshop aside from its still-available PDF of the game's core rules.

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Now Games Workshop is finally bringing back some of those titles, announcing that it will create a 'Specialist Studio' to work on a full range of "new boxed games and standalone sets". "Our all-new Specialist Design Studio will even be tasked with bringing back and re-vamping some of our old favourites. Blood Bowl, Epic, Necromunda and Battlefield Gothic are just some of the great games the team are already eyeing up," Games Workshop said.

The announcement was made on the Games Workshop app, to mark the release of Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth, a new boxed game seemingly aimed at more casual players who want a self-contained, affordable entry point back into wargaming.

There is as yet no word on exactly which games and titles will be released as part of the new studio, and it may take months or years to learn what GW has planned. But fans of classic games will be heartened by the news that the golden age of specialist Warhammer titles might finally be returning.